Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) sharply criticized the Biden administration over conditions at multiple Health and Human Services detention facilities for unaccompanied migrant children recently opened across the state. Abbott specifically cited a drinking-water issue at a facility hastily opened by HHS in Midland, Texas and a COVID-19 outbreak in a facility opened last month in Carrizo Springs, Texas.
Governor Abbott said, “The Biden Administration has been an abject failure when it comes to ensuring the safety of unaccompanied minors who cross our border. The conditions unaccompanied minors face in these federally run facilities is unacceptable and inhumane.”
“From a lack of safe drinking water in one location to a COVID-19 outbreak in another, the Biden Administration has no excuse for subjecting these children to these kinds of conditions,” the Texas governor continued. “President Biden’s refusal to address the border crisis is not only enabling criminal actors like human traffickers and smugglers, but it is exposing innocent unaccompanied children to illness and potentially unsafe living conditions.”
“The administration must act now to keep these children safe, secure our border, and end this humanitarian crisis,” Abbott concluded.
This latest development regarding the surge in unaccompanied minors comes as the Biden administration finds itself woefully unprepared to handle the influx. Federal officials opened a temporary facility in Dallas, Texas at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center to accommodate the UAC’s.
Sources in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector indicate they are still apprehending between 400 and 500 unaccompanied children per day. Agents are holding, according to the source, over 2100 unaccompanied children in Border Patrol facilities and cannot keep up with the backlog in processing and transfer to HHS.
HHS is responsible for providing suitable detention space for the children under current law.
The governor also announced the deployment Texas Department of State Health Services resources and personnel to the Carrizo Springs Facility to investigate, identify, and combat the COVID-19 outbreak. As for the Midland, Texas facility, Abbott indicated the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality notified federal officials of the need to address the serious water issues.
The Midland facility, a former oilfield mancamp, is also experiencing a COVID outbreak as nearly 11 percent of the minors tested positive, Breitbart Texas reported.
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesman Mark Weber told the Associated Press they put their plans to move more unaccompanied migrant teenagers to the Midland facility on pause after finding that 53 of the 485 migrant teens tested positive for COVID-19.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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